Another Blasted Day in Paradise

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DAY 161

A cool morning, it was lovely and refreshing, but with the sunshine it promises to be another hot day.

Andy was out of bed early, not sure how early but I believe before 5.55, I surfaced at 7.00 and found Andy in the camp kitchen. The electric kettle in the camp kitchen is not working so we are having to use our camp kettle on the single burners, which is no problem but everytime someone comes in you watch them fiddle with the kettle then we have to tell them it is not working.

After breakfast Andy drives the Patrol down to the Nissan Dealer for its service. I stay back at camp to get on with some chores, there is always something that needs doing and today we are going to clean the floor of the tent, we do it regularly and most certainly sweep it down before packing up each time, but it needs a good scrub where the weather got wet and no matter how hard you try some mud does get onto the floor.

So bowl in hand and a bottle of floor cleaner and a mop I give the floor the once over, then a second over. I now leave it to dry before giving it a third go.

When Andy comes back we have a cup of tea and review some mail that we have had from England, it appears there maybe a slight problem back at home in England that gives us both cause for concern. However we cannot deal with it for another 7 hours as we have to wait for business to open over there.

Andy is now worried about things, I can tell by the look on his face how concerned he is. We both worry about the economy over there and the effect that it will have on our trip, but there is nothing we can do yet.

I pack away the dry clothes from yesterday, sort out the food storage bin only to find that the sugar container has split so there is a clean up operation needed there. Everything comes out, gets dusted down, I wash out the food bin and Andy repacks everything.

Then Andy gets down on his hands and knees with a cloth to wipe down the floor of the tent, I do the other half of the floor. We discuss what is happening in England and what our options maybe, but again we cannot come to a conclusion until we know what is happening, but for now it sullies the day for us.

It is hot now, the weather here can be very hot, I have all of the bed linen and the sleeping bags on the washing line airing, only a very slight breeze but it will air all the same.

Generally we just beetle around and get on with anything that needs doing that makes our lives easier or more organised. There is a swimming pool here, but the water is freezing, I am tempted but I hate water that cold.

The garage phones, the look on Andy’s face tells me that this is not good news. The brake pads need replacing and so do the windscreen wiper blades, great more money! But you do have to expect these things will occur, there is heavy usage on any vehicle when driving round Australia and lets face it the wiper blades have had a lot of use in the last couple of months!!

A number of vehicles that you see on the road belonging to backpackers are more than likely poorly maintained. A couple yesterday told us that one girl they met said the car had not been serviced, yet it was to get her round to Brisbane where she would get it serviced and then sell it on. The likely chance here is that if it actually makes it to Brisbane it will probably not get serviced and another backpacker is likely to buy it for next to nothing and again it will drive right the way round Australia until it gives in altogether.

This is all well and good, however with poorly maintained vehicles on the road, how safe are they?

We decided that we need to stay another night in, the car will now be later back than expected and after a busy morning a restful afternoon will do us good. We find out that there is not blasting at the Super Pit today, we are disappointed as it would have been good to see another.

Its lunch time so Andy Fire’s up the BBQ and he slices up a tin of Spam and we have Spam fritter sandwiches, Yum! Soon after the Nissan dealer call to say the truck is ready and they are sending a driver to pick Andy up, so in anticipation he walks to the drop barrier at the entrance to wait.

In no time at all he is back with the Patrol, and we carry on with our chores, and the bucket of hot water and flash that we did the floor with is now being used to clean the trailer.

It is 8.30 in England so we can now make a few phone calls and try and ease our minds over the problems that we found out about earlier, half hour and a few calls later we seem to be back on an even keel, everything in England is now tickety boo.

Once these things were done we needed to go to Bunnings the Australian Equivalent of B&Q to get some bits and pieces, especially some strip wood that Andy is going to fit inside the trailer to stop the mattress from sliding down everytime the trailer top is lifted up.
With this glued.

On the way out I pop into the reception and pay for our additional night, still at the discounted rate that we had 2 nights ago. I explain to the lady there that the kettle is not working and asked what happened to the new kettle that was there when we first arrived. She said “someone’s swapped it over again”. I told her that there was a cruddy old kettle with a dodgy switch. The lady on the reception desk explained that sometimes they get travellers in that see a nice new kettle and think that they are entitled to exchange it for their old one that doesn’t work. “I will pop down later and put another one in there”.

It is a shame, it is things like that that will end up spoiling it for other campers otherwise before long camp sites won’t be able to supply all of this good equipment or they will jack the prices up to cover their losses.

By the time we are back at the camp a new kettle has appeared in the kitchen. Great we can have a cup of tea!

Early evening we cook our tea on the BBQ, and sit down to play cards and chat, a new couple had arrived who were from Switzerland and they have also had some amazing adventures so far, they caught a cargo ship from Singapore which took 6 days and sailed in to Freemantle, in Perth and they said it was an absolutely brilliant experience.

Our thoughts are for packing up and moving on tomorrow, but for now we are happy to sit and chat to John, Judith, Lorraine and Brian. John is British and Judith is from Switzerland.

We have a good laugh about all of our adventures, but at 9.00 Andy stands up and says “I have to go to bed, I just cannot keep my eyes open”. Well, Andy was out of bed ridiculously early this morning. We finish chatting and bid each other a good night.

Andy is in bed and fast asleep before I come back from the amenities, I sit in bed and read for a while, one of the other campers kindly gave us a newspaper to read it was not long before I too had to close my eyes.

It was a warm night and once again sleep came easily.

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